Medicine is a Machine

Today’s Medicine is in a state of flux.

It has come from a personal approach to a medical problem in a single person. It is now headed straight for an impersonal factory for performing procedures for the income it provides. The patient is being subtracted from the entire relationship —-except for the government ID in order to collect the money.

And it’s all government money.

But more about that later.

Today’s point is this: there is always a change in any system. Whether small or large. Whether living or administrative. And Medicine is bigger than most. As an old Doctor (or an older physician, or better yet as an experienced health care provider) I can assure you change is continual. And although we say it was better in the olden days, it probably was just more comfortable to us.

We cannot stop change. But we can direct it. We have an ethical duty to try to influence this ongoing train to include the important principles and goals that Medicine has developed over centuries. Or we can retire to sit back and watch it derail and crash.